When Gaitley Stevenson-Mathews moved to Glen Cove in 2007 from Manhattan, his moving boxes were still unpacked when he began exploring the city’s history. Within his first week, he visited the archives at the Glen Cove Public Library and the North Shore Historical Museum, eager to learn about the community he and his husband had chosen as their home.
Nearly two decades later, Stevenson-Mathews, 65, has been named director of the museum, an institution he has supported for years as a volunteer, trustee and lifetime member.
“Even though the history of this region may not be my history, or wasn’t my history at that time, I feel it is so important to know who came before,” Stevenson-Mathews said. “You cannot know a community without knowing the community’s history.”
His appreciation for history began during his child hood in rural North Carolina, where his grandmother Annie Culbreth Gaitley shared stories about her life and the changes she had witnessed. As a teenager, he often joined her for lunch, listening to accounts that gave him a greater understanding of the past.
“It gave me such a sense of belonging and being a part of something bigger than myself,” he recalled.
That sense of belonging eventually brought him to Glen Cove. After nearly two years searching for a home, Stevenson-Mathews and his husband, Jim Mathews, settled near Morgan Park, drawn by the waterfront and the surrounding neighborhood.
Although the park initially attracted them, Stevenson-Mathews said the community itself convinced them to stay.
“The thing that has kept us here, and the thing that is even a greater commodity than that beautiful park, are, of course, the people of Glen Cove,” he said.
His involvement in the community has grown over the years. A former City Council member, Stevenson-Mathews founded the Tribute and Honor Foundation, and has served on numerous nonprofit boards. He continues making weekly deliveries to families for NOSH Delivers, and remains involved with the SAGE Foundation, which supports the Glen Cove Senior Center.
He earned a degree in English literature from Berea College and a master’s in theater from Southern Methodist University. His professional career has included theater, communications and nearly two decades as a voice and speech coach.
Georgie Connett, president of the museum’s board of trustees, said that Stevenson-Mathews’ professional experience and community involvement made him a natural choice for the position.
“His experience in nonprofit leadership, communications, and historic preservation, together with his longstanding commitment to our community, makes him an excellent choice to help guide the Museum into its next chapter,” Connett wrote in a statement to the Herald.
Local historian Joan Harrison recalled meeting Stevenson-Mathews in the Glen Cove library’s Robert Coles History Room shortly after his arrival. “We discovered we were neighbors, and both obsessed with the history and people of the North Shore,” Harrison said.
Harrison, who has written four books about the area’s history, said that his friend’s organizational abilities and enthusiasm for the community would serve the museum well.
As director, Stevenson-Mathews is responsible for coordinating volunteers, overseeing daily operations and developing programming. He acknowledged that accepting the position required scaling back his speech-coaching business and stepping down from the boards of the Glen Cove Economic Opportunity Council and the Long Island Concert Orchestra.
He has already begun introducing initiatives intended to expand the museum’s reach. His new Community Connections series brings local cultural organizations to the facility to share their histories and traditions. Recent programs have included Hispanic heritage and Italian cultural celebrations, developed in collaboration with community organizations.
Stevenson-Mathews also hopes to expand the museum’s mock trial program and establish a Young Historians program, encouraging younger generations to take part in preserving local history. “We need the perspective of those who have been doing it a long time,” he said. “We also must have the perspective of young people who are looking at it with fresh eyes and from a different background.”
“If you don’t already have them in the door, sometimes it takes going out to where they are,” Stevenson-Mathews said.
The museum board will host a public welcome reception for the new director on Nov. 8, at 3 p.m. The museum is open Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.
